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UW-Superior’s Hailey Kontny splits the Bethany Lutheran defense during Saturday’s UMAC championship game. Kontny was named the UMAC Player of the Year for the third straight season. (Jed Carlson / jcarlson@superiortelegram.com)
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University of Wisconsin-Superior’s Hailey Kontny has been named the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year for the third straight season.

While Kontny was leading the Yellowjackets on the court, Zach Otto-Fisher led the squad from the sidelines and was selected as UMAC Coach of the Year in his first season at the helm of the program.

Bethany Lutheran’s Abby Olson was named the league’s freshman of the year.

During Kontny’s three seasons at UWS, the Yellowjackets have won three consecutive regular season and postseason titles and are a combined 54-0 in the UMAC.

UWS has established a dynasty in UMAC women’s basketball as the only program to ever earn the UMAC automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA tournament three times and Kontny was a huge reason for the team’s success — particularly in the playoffs — as the fourth-leading scorer in conference games this season with 15.9 ppg.

The senior from Superior also ranked fourth in field goal percentage (42.3) and seventh in rebounds per game (6.6). She also added 2.4 steals per game and 2.0 assists per game.

Kontny was the Yellowjackets’ leading scorer in 10-of-16 UMAC contests and tallied four games of 20 points or more.

She recorded a season-high 31 points in an early season win over Minnesota Morris and showed her clutch ability when it mattered most during the conference tournament — scoring 27 points in the tournament title game and earning the UMAC Tournament MVP honor after averaging 20 ppg and 10 rpg in two playoff outings.

Kontny also reached the 1,000-point mark in just her third season with the Yellowjackets and is the first player since Jackie Plesha (2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05) of St. Scholastica to earn three-consecutive UMAC Player of the Year awards.

As a team, the Yellowjackets were narrowly second in scoring (74.3 ppg) and led the league in scoring defense (45.5 ppg), field goal percentage (43.3), field goal defense (32.5), 3-point defense (21.9), rebounding (44.8), rebounding defense (32.8), rebounding margin (12.1), turnover margin (7.56), assist/turnover (1.10) and steals per game (13.06).

Joining Kontny as a first-team selection was Hannah Norlin, a junior from Litchfield, Minn.

Also for UWS, Justine Larson, a senior from Stanchfield, Minn., was a second-team selection; Amelia Leger, a senior from Andover, Minn., was named honorable mention; and senior Jade Tucker, a senior from White Bear Lake, Minn., received the team’s Sportsmanship Award.

Kontny and Larson were also named to the UMAC All-Defensive Team.

NCAA tourney

The Yellowjackets play at UW-Whitewater in the opening round of the NCAA DIII Tournament at 7 p.m. today.

Superior advanced to its fourth straight NCAA tournament with a 66-54 win over Bethany Lutheran.

UWS also won the WIAC playoff title prior to joining the UMAC.

No. 12 Whitewater (24-3) advanced to the NCAA tournament with a 68-65 win over UW-Oshkosh in the WIAC championship game.

Brooke Trewyn leads the Warhawks with 13 points and 6.3 rebounds a game. Malia Smith is next with 11.1 points a game.

While they don’t put up astonishing offensive numbers, Whitewater is known for what they do defensively, as they average 10.5 steals and force an average of 20 turnovers each game.